NYC subways adding 28 locomotives

MTA New York City Transit on May 1 took delivery of the first of 28 new diesel-electric locomotives it is acquiring from Wabtec subsidiary MotivePower, Inc.

While better known to customers for its fleet of 6,300 subway cars, NYC Transit maintains a fleet of 62 locomotives to haul work trains and pumping equipment into sections of track where third-rail power has been turned off to facilitate construction, maintenance work, or damage repair.

The locomotive was loaded onto a flat car in Boise, Idaho, shipped cross-country over the rails, and off-loaded at NYCT's Linden Yard. The locomotive will be moved to the Coney Island Shop for testing.

All 28 locomotives are expected to be delivered by mid-2013. They will create new capacity and also replace units that have been working in the system nearly a half century.